Sustainable Sourcing

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Sustainable Sourcing

Sustainable Sourcing

To create the highest quality beauty products and experiences for our discerning consumers, we require the best ingredients and packaging materials. Our deep-rooted values guide us to operate with the highest level of integrity and ethics, while caring for people and the environment.

We aim to continuously enhance our responsible and ethical sourcing practices in line with goals and objectives and with stakeholder expectations. This means reviewing our relevant policies, working closely with our brands and sourcing partners and collaborating with industry groups and peers to improve supplier practices and performance.

Sourcing Practices

Sourcing Practices

Many of our brands use resources from all around the world. We endeavor to source our ingredients responsibly and sustainably with respect for local communities and the environment. We expect our suppliers to comply with local regulations and national laws governing minimum wages, work hours, overtime compensation, hiring, occupational safety, forced and/or child labor and biodiversity.

Our internal Responsible Sourcing Working Group meets regularly to review our sourcing standards, analyze and benchmark best practices, engage key stakeholder groups and develop and implement policies to advance sustainable sourcing practices within the Company.

Strategic Partnerships

Strategic Partnerships

Effectively addressing the challenges related to sustainable sourcing requires collaboration between governments, civil society, local communities and private enterprise. Important to this process are our partnerships with organizations that can help us build and strengthen our sourcing strategies.

To ensure continuous improvements in our sourcing practices, we became a member of AIM-Progress, a global responsible sourcing forum for diverse consumer goods manufacturers and their common suppliers. Through shared auditing, member benchmarking, supplier capability-building and best practice education, AIM-Progress works with members to improve supply chain practices.

We are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a nonprofit organization that unites key stakeholders in the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. The RSPO has developed a set of environmental and social criteria, which companies must comply with in order to produce Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). When they are properly applied, these criteria can help to minimize the negative impact of palm oil cultivation on the environment and communities in palm oil–producing regions.

Read more about our position and actions on Palm Oil.

We are also members of the Natural Resources Stewardship Circle (NRSC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to implementing good practices and responsible sourcing in the beauty industry — based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and other international agreements.

Supplier Monitoring

Supplier Monitoring and Compliance

Our global supply chain is composed of direct suppliers, including manufacturers of packaging components, suppliers of raw material ingredients, third-party manufacturers, and indirect suppliers, including transportation, energy, print, visual merchandising, counter construction and other services.

Our mandatory Supplier Code of Conduct sets clear expectations for our partners to meet applicable environmental, human rights, antidiscrimination protection, labor and health and safety laws and regulations in countries where we do business.

Our work in this area is governed by our Global Supplier Relations (GSR) team, which has representatives in each of our regions. GSR, in partnership with Global Quality Assurance, Research & Development, Global Regulatory Affairs and Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability, is responsible for ensuring that the suppliers with whom we do business meet the expectations for ethical behavior outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct is the foundation we use to set expectations. It is the basis for how we evaluate and help our suppliers meet our high ethical and quality standards in the procurement of our product ingredients and materials. The Supplier Code of Conduct, in conjunction with our standard purchasing contracts, requires that suppliers be in full compliance with all applicable governmental, legal, regulatory and professional rules and regulations. Our Global Supplier Relations team is continuously working to strengthen our supplier monitoring and compliance program.

Read more about our position on Supplier Relations.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

Our company has a long history of sourcing raw materials from environments that are rich in biodiversity, with more than half of the raw materials we use derived from plant origin. As threats to the world’s natural resources increase, we must continue to strengthen our approach to protecting biodiversity. To this end, we are currently working to develop an ethical and responsible framework for sourcing from biodiverse areas. We are developing sourcing protocols that will enable us to ensure:

  • Sustainable use of materials from areas rich in biodiversity.
  • Respect for local communities and their traditional knowledge/practices, cultural expressions and equitable sharing of benefits linked to the use of genetic resources.
  • Sourcing Practices
  • Strategic Partnerships
  • Supplier Monitoring
  • Biodiversity

Sourcing Practices

Many of our brands use resources from all around the world. We endeavor to source our ingredients responsibly and sustainably with respect for local communities and the environment. We expect our suppliers to comply with local regulations and national laws governing minimum wages, work hours, overtime compensation, hiring, occupational safety, forced and/or child labor and biodiversity.

Our internal Responsible Sourcing Working Group meets regularly to review our sourcing standards, analyze and benchmark best practices, engage key stakeholder groups and develop and implement policies to advance sustainable sourcing practices within the Company.

Strategic Partnerships

Effectively addressing the challenges related to sustainable sourcing requires collaboration between governments, civil society, local communities and private enterprise. Important to this process are our partnerships with organizations that can help us build and strengthen our sourcing strategies.

To ensure continuous improvements in our sourcing practices, we became a member of AIM-Progress, a global responsible sourcing forum for diverse consumer goods manufacturers and their common suppliers. Through shared auditing, member benchmarking, supplier capability-building and best practice education, AIM-Progress works with members to improve supply chain practices.

We are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a nonprofit organization that unites key stakeholders in the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. The RSPO has developed a set of environmental and social criteria, which companies must comply with in order to produce Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). When they are properly applied, these criteria can help to minimize the negative impact of palm oil cultivation on the environment and communities in palm oil–producing regions.

Read more about our position and actions on Palm Oil.

We are also members of the Natural Resources Stewardship Circle (NRSC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to implementing good practices and responsible sourcing in the beauty industry — based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and other international agreements.

Supplier Monitoring and Compliance

Our global supply chain is composed of direct suppliers, including manufacturers of packaging components, suppliers of raw material ingredients, third-party manufacturers, and indirect suppliers, including transportation, energy, print, visual merchandising, counter construction and other services.

Our mandatory Supplier Code of Conduct sets clear expectations for our partners to meet applicable environmental, human rights, antidiscrimination protection, labor and health and safety laws and regulations in countries where we do business.

Our work in this area is governed by our Global Supplier Relations (GSR) team, which has representatives in each of our regions. GSR, in partnership with Global Quality Assurance, Research & Development, Global Regulatory Affairs and Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability, is responsible for ensuring that the suppliers with whom we do business meet the expectations for ethical behavior outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct is the foundation we use to set expectations. It is the basis for how we evaluate and help our suppliers meet our high ethical and quality standards in the procurement of our product ingredients and materials. The Supplier Code of Conduct, in conjunction with our standard purchasing contracts, requires that suppliers be in full compliance with all applicable governmental, legal, regulatory and professional rules and regulations. Our Global Supplier Relations team is continuously working to strengthen our supplier monitoring and compliance program.

Read more about our position on Supplier Relations.

Biodiversity

Our company has a long history of sourcing raw materials from environments that are rich in biodiversity, with more than half of the raw materials we use derived from plant origin. As threats to the world’s natural resources increase, we must continue to strengthen our approach to protecting biodiversity. To this end, we are currently working to develop an ethical and responsible framework for sourcing from biodiverse areas. We are developing sourcing protocols that will enable us to ensure:

  • Sustainable use of materials from areas rich in biodiversity.
  • Respect for local communities and their traditional knowledge/practices, cultural expressions and equitable sharing of benefits linked to the use of genetic resources.

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The Estée Lauder Companies' Sustainable Sourcing

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